ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 12, 2021I got an email from the magazine Sojourners yesterday and it referenced the words from Isaiah 43:2… When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Have you ever felt like you were absolutely ready for a
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 11, 2021People throughout the history of Christianity have tried to create a corollary between success and divine blessing. Many great armies crushed their opponents, and then made the assumption that God must be on their side. History often shows how there was absolutely no connection whatsoever. In fact, many were the antithesis of what Jesus embodied. For this reason, I am more than cautious about making
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 10, 2021This past Sunday, we did some time traveling as we returned to 2015 and the beginning of the Crossing Over Campaign. At the time, CCCC had a significant mortgage and not much of a plan on how it was going to pay it off. The people of CCCC caught the vision and stepped up in significant fashion. Along with debt reduction, the Campaign included some
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 9, 2021This past Friday, I posted to Facebook a picture of a few of us who went to hear Keeton Coffman do a live show. I talked about how much I enjoyed listening to live music again, and how Keeton is a fabulous performer. I posted it late Friday evening after getting home, and I didn’t even turn on the TV or check the news online.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 8, 2021Prayer for the Week: Whatever I have planned for this week and whatever interrupts those plans and forces me to make other plans, I request the eyes of faith, O God of Holy Vision. Allow me to perceive the sacred opportunities found in the unexpected. Allow my heart to see the beautiful human beings I might have never met had it not been for the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 7, 2021I was in a denominational training yesterday with 40 or so of my DOC colleagues, including Rev. Katelin Jordan. Katelin is a member of Cypress Creek Christian Church, and she is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister. She currently serves a nonprofit in the area that many of our folks know well: CarePartners. The online training was on the topic of Anti-Racism, ProReconciliation in the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 6, 2021Tomorrow, we will begin a new worship series entitled: With Mud Between The Toes. The title found its conception in my imagination which is always a strange, if not disturbing place to visit. With all seriousness, I love sitting with a scripture for a while to give my imagination the opportunity to walk around the scene, interact with some of the characters and definitely allow
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 5, 2021Between the completion of one thing and the beginning of something else is a space rich with the Holy. Whether we will contribute to or hinder God’s dream for the future is often determined by what occurs in that in-between space. We find ourselves in those spaces for many reasons. For some, those in-between spaces feel hollow and futile. Others push through because of the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 4, 2021This past Tuesday, I shared at staff meeting a quote from Father Richard Rohr (from his Daily Meditation on July 7, 2016). He wrote: We keep praying that our illusions will fall away. God erodes them from many sides, hoping they will fall. But we often remain trapped in what we call normalcy – “the way things are.” Life then revolves around problem-solving, fixing, explaining,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGNovember 3, 2021The other day, I was listening to the wonderful Gospel song, “The Best In Me,” sung by Marvin Sapp. It speaks of how God sees the best in us even when everyone else sees the worst in us. In the version I was listening to, Sapp goes through a litany of folks who told us that we would not amount to anything, always pointing out